


An Eye for An Eye

by Seven81493



Category: Original Work
Genre: Dreams and Nightmares, Horror, Psychological Torture, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-29
Updated: 2020-04-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:08:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23918050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seven81493/pseuds/Seven81493
Summary: Written for my bestie, Fubukii! <3





	An Eye for An Eye

It had been _two months_.

Two months since he had lost the one thing he treasured above all else. Hunched over his desk, Michael stared down at the crumpled piece of paper resting just beneath his face. A letter, written to him back when they were naught but high school sweethearts with nary a hint of life experience. Dried up tears dotted the page, slowly joined by fresh ones as his eyes scanned intently over each and every letter.

“... Dad?”

Michael’s head shot up, his gaze immediately snapping over to his daughter. His eyes were bloodshot, accentuated by the large bags beneath them.

“What is it, _Jamie_?” He replied sourly. His daughter winced at the anger lacing her name. Seeing the look on her face drew a chuckle from him. “What’s the matter, did I hurt your feelings?”

Jamie didn’t reply, running her right hand down her left arm. It came to rest just over the bruise he’d left on her the day before.

“As if you know what it means to _hurt_ ,” he added.

“I-I just wanted to know what you wanted for dinner…” Jamie said, quivering all the while.

“Nothing!” Michael screamed. The rage in his voice was enough to get Jamie’s legs moving, and she quickly backed out of his room. Her feet thudded down the hallway, and he called out after her. “That’s right, run away, just like you always do!”

Taking a moment to compose himself, Michael turned his attention back to the letter. Just as quickly as his anger had consumed him, it was gone, replaced by a pit in his heart that seemingly nothing could replace.

“I love you, Diana…”

Michael’s inebriation finally got the better of him as his head came to rest on his desk, his vodka-laced lips drooling onto the letter.

* * *

_Michael’s eyes snapped open. The world around him was dark, illuminated only by the many stars lining the night sky. The moon, seemingly closer than usual, reflected no light. Bracing himself with his right arm, Michael clambered to his feet and took a moment to regard his surroundings. Fireflies flickered in and out of view, invariably lighting up the many trees and shrubbery around him._

_“Where… am I?” Michael asked himself. His legs seemed to form a mind of their own, engineering him forward into the howling dark. Leaves and branches crunched under his weight, but aside from that, the world provided absolutely no noise._

_“Hello!” He called out. No reply. With a sigh, he pressed onward._

_Unbeknownst to him, as the tree-tops shrouded the sky away, the moon above began to change. Its smooth edges grew more jagged in shape, puffing outwards like clumped up fur. The largest of Luna’s craters slowly expanded outwards in all directions until it covered nearly all of the visible surface. A sickly crackling noise echoed throughout the woods as a fracture formed on the crater, spanning from left to right._

_The Moon was no more, supplanted by a humanoid face. Another fracture formed below the crater, rows of jagged teeth shimmering a faint yellow. Suddenly, the crater flicked open, revealing a bright yellow eye beneath. The purple iris slowly, deliberately scanned over the woods._

_By the time Michael finally reached a clearing and looked up at the night sky, he could do nothing to suppress the guttural scream that escaped his lungs._

_“Y-you!” He cried out, already hyperventilating. “W-w-what are you doing here, Zhu?”_

_The creature didn’t reply, only smirking at his prey._

_“I-I didn’t hurt her today, Zhu!”_

_Those words quickly contorted that smirk into a frown. When Zhu finally spoke, every syllable was laced with a palpable venom. “As if that_ matters _. You don’t care about her…”_

_Zhu’s voice was a unique one. It was deep, yet rhaspy. The most apt way one could describe it, would be to compare it to the sound a tape recorder makes if the tape is forcibly yanked out. And yet, it didn’t come across as abrasive. Rather, it was almost… soothing, in a way._

_“How can you say I don’t care about my own_ daughter _?” Michael demanded, slowly inching his way backwards, in the direction of a thicker section of forest._

_“How can you so brashly abuse that which you claim to love?” Zhu countered. “The death of your wife was tragic, but that gives you_ no right _to hurt your daughter.”_

_“P-please, I—”_

_Michael’s pleading fell on deaf ears. The next time he blinked, the Moon was back to its normal self. Turning heel to run into the woods, he was stunned to see Zhu waiting for him. The bipedal creature stared daggers at him, his large grey ears draping across his face. The scariest part, no doubt, were the claws he sported on his hands and feet._

_Claws that were already stained in some sort of fluorescent pink liquid. Droplets of it fell to the ground below, staining the grass and leaves._

_“You know,” Zhu addressed Michael, slowly raising his hand up to his mouth, “They say that the worst pain one can go through, is the pain they inflict on themselves.”_

_To the absolute detestment of Michael, Zhu’s tongue snaked out from between his lips, the longer-than-normal muscle lapping itself across his index finger._

_“... I disagree. Pain makes you feel_ alive _,” Zhu said, taking a step towards Michael, his smile unwavering. The grey fur around his lips was stained pink, as were portions of his razor-sharp teeth. “So what do you say I help you feel alive, Michael?”_

_“N-no…”_

_“Yes,” Zhu grinned. In a flash, he was in front of Michael. The human’s cries were cut short as Zhu’s right hand clasped itself firmly around his throat. The difference in their physical strength became apparent as Michael struggled to break free, to no avail. Meanwhile, Zhu lifted the human up quite easily. He took a sort of sick pleasure in watching his legs flail about wildly._

_“You know what the best part of dream worlds are?” Zhu asked. He wasn’t expecting an answer, of course. How could he? “You can’t pass out. No matter how much pain I inflict on you, there’s nothing you can do to stop it.”_

_… And yet, this_ still _pales in comparison to what you did to your daughter the other day.”_

_Zhu’s left hand found its way to Michael’s face, his index claw hovering just inches in front of his right eye. That eye grew as wide as it possibly could, terror evident as its pupil shrank._

  


_“You remember, don’t you?” Zhu said, his smile growing wider. Without a hint of mercy, he shot his claw forward. Michael’s screams were caught in his throat as his eyeball was gouged, quite forcefully, out of its socket. Zhu looked at his work with great satisfaction, noting how his claw had pierced directly through the pupil. Michael could do nothing to resist as he drew his hand back, ripping his eye out with it._

_“You were drunk,_ as usual _, and saw Jamie standing at the top of the stairs,” Zhu recalled, twirling the eyeball around in front of himself. Blood was gushing from Michael’s now barren eye socket, pooling onto the dirt below. “Why did you push her down the stairs, Michael?”_

_Zhu’s tongue snaked back out. The slimy appendage ran across his eyeball, coating it with saliva. To the human’s abject horror, it wrestled the eye free of Zhu’s claws, and quickly slurped it into the alien-like creature’s waiting maw. With an unsettling pop, Zhu happily chomped down on it._

_“Mmm…” He hummed, gulping it down once and for all. “Delicious.”_

_Mercifully, Zhu’s iron grip on his throat finally loosened; Just enough for Michael to fall to the ground, writhing in pain. His hands reflexively shot up to his face, covering the hole where his right eye used to be._

_“F-fuck!” He cried out. “You fucking monster!”_

_“No,_ you’re _the monster!” Zhu shouted back. “You broke Jamie’s ankle, and for_ what _? Just for existing?”_

_Michael could hear Zhu spit, and felt it impact the back of his head._

_“You make me sick.”_

* * *

_Michael’s feet slammed against the soaking wet ground over and over, propelling him deeper into the haunting forest. Having just one eye certainly didn’t help in the depth perception department, as he found himself constantly bumbling his way over the many roots and stones littering the ground. Water splashed about, coating his jeans in muck as he did his best to escape his tormentor._

_It was all for naught as he suddenly slammed into a large, furry barrier. His surprise carried him backwards, and he fell butt-first onto the cold, rainy ground. What vision his one eye could provide him was limited by the torrential downpour, but it was obvious that he had run into Zhu yet again._

_“P-please, I’m sorry, just leave me alone and let me wake up!”_

_Zhu’s eye snapped open, giving Michael a thousand yard stare. Creepily, arms sprouted out from the wall, stretching towards him in an almost zig-zagged fashion. The human scrambled up to his feet, swiveling himself around, only to see the same wall, arms and all. His head shot to and fro, desperately searching for an escape._

_There was none._

_A seemingly infinite amount of claws reached out towards him, slowly blanketing his body. All the while, a cacophony of laughter rained down on him._

_“You’re sorry? For what?” Zhu asked, compressing his arms inwards, making it harder for Michael to breathe. “For becoming a monster?”_

_“Yes!” Michael cried out. “I’ll never hurt her again, just please let me go!”_

_“‘Never again’?” Zhu repeated incredulously. “You struck her_ yesterday _. And now, you’re never going to hurt her again.”_

_Pain coursed through MIchael’s body as all of Zhu’s claws began to crush him. The first appendage to go was his left leg. He could hear and feel a sickening snap as it was pushed inwards from the foot, his tibia having cracked in two, the tissue around it being forced outwards as well. Blood and guts streamed forth to the ground as his leg split in half, followed quickly by his right arm._

_Zhu chuckled, electing to grab Michael’s left arm and pull it roughly. His shoulder dislocated almost immediately, followed by his arm literally being ripped away from his torso._

_Michael was coughing up blood profusely, begging to wake up._

* * *

MIchael’s head shot up from his desk, his eyes snapping open.

_Eyes…?_

His hand shot to his eye immediately. It was back, and he was awake. It had all been a dream.

“A horrible dream…” He muttered aloud. Tears began to flow forth as he sobbed. “Thank God he’s gone…”

_“Oh, I wouldn’t be so certain of that, Michael.”_

His heart dropped. With a gulp, Michael slowly lifted himself out of his chair, turning about to face the source of his torment. “... Zhu?”

_“In the flesh,”_ Zhu said. _“Well, as close as a vision like me can get to in the flesh.”_

“V-vision?” Michael stammered. “You’re not… real?”

_“Oh, I’m as real as you,”_ Zhu replied. He took a couple steps towards Michael, holding up his left claw as he did. _“Remember what was on this claw?”_

“Fuck you,” Michael spat out. Defiantly, he slammed his eyes shut. If Zhu was a vision, then he could make him disappear. When his eyes fluttered back open, though, Zhu still remained.

_“I just told you I’m as real as you, Michael,”_ Zhu repeated. _“And no amount of closing your eyes, or wishing me away, or even_ praying _is going to make me disappear. I’m going to make sure you feel what Jamie has felt for these last two months, every. Single. Day.”_

Michael fell back into his seat. Every day? If that was the case, then he would have to resign himself to the fate he’d been contemplating since the day his wife died. Ever so slowly, he turned himself around, staring back at the letter she had written for him all those years ago. Just to the left of it laid his revolver. One in the chamber. One shot to end it all.

“You know… I thought I could cope with Diana’s passing,” Michael spoke up, his voice more composed than ever. “I can’t.”

Zhu said nothing, electing to simply stare at the shell of a man his creator called a father. Michael’s hand clasped itself around the pearlescent grip of the gun, lifting it upwards. His mouth opened wide, paving the way for the barrel.

Zhu slammed his eye shut, looking down to the ground.

_Bang._

A footstep to his right drew his attention back upwards, towards the door.

“... Dad?”


End file.
